Uncovered: Big Tech’s network sabotaging the DMA

The DMA is the EU’s attempt to rein in Big Tech’s monopoly power by limiting its worst excesses. It went into effect on 7 March 2024, and it has faced fierce opposition from Big Tech companies. Firms such as Apple, Meta and ByteDance have resisted compliance, launching legal challenges and leveraging their influence to undermine the regulatory framework.

Although the Commission aimed to foster transparency by opening the workshops to a wide range of participants, research from Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), LobbyControl, and SOMO reveals a troubling trend: 848 of the registrations (21% of all registrations) have ties to the very companies the DMA is meant to regulate. These include representatives from 34 law firms, 22 lobby firms, 17 trade associations, 10 economic consultancies, and 8 think tanks.

The workshops were intended to provide a platform for communities affected by ‘gatekeepers’ (those Big Tech companies that need to comply with the DMA) like users, competitors, and businesses dependent on gatekeepers' services,  yet Big Tech used its deep pockets and wide-reaching networks to distort the process, deflecting criticism and creating doubt. 

Margarida Silva, SOMO researcher, says:

Public workshops with impacted businesses and users can be a great way to test Big Tech’s compliance with new rules. They can enable under-resourced groups to make their concerns public and access more information. However, unless there are strict disclosure and conflict of interest safeguards implemented, they can also easily be distorted and taken over by lawyers, lobbyists and experts hired by or funded by Big Tech. 

Two particularly stark examples are ACT | The App Association and the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE), organisations funded by Big Tech that participated in the workshops in person without disclosing their corporate sponsors. These groups intervened in the debates,  deflecting criticism or skewing the debate on the gatekeepers’ compliance without ever acknowledging they were directly funded by those very same companies. 

Bram Vranken, Corporate Europe Observatory researcher and campaigner, comments: "Big Tech’s use of front groups to distort public debate is deeply problematic. It is not only misleading but also undermines democratic decision-making. Big Tech-funded organisations such as ACT and ICLE should, at the bare minimum, be transparent about their conflicting interests.”

While the Commission took the positive step of asking participants to disclose their affiliations to gatekeepers, CEO, LobbyControl, and SOMO’s analysis shows that almost all participants ignored the request. The majority of actors with known affiliations to Big Tech did not disclose them, regardless of whether they were linked to gatekeepers contractually (lobby and law firms), by funding (think-tanks ) or even if the companies were members of their trade associations.

To prevent future workshops from being similarly distorted, CEO, SOMO, and LobbyControl recommend adopting a conflict of interest disclosure requirement for all participants. This includes stricter requirements during the registration process as well as an obligation to disclose one’s interests when speaking during a workshop. Organisations that clearly function as Big Tech front groups should be denied access to in-person participation. 

At the same time, the analysis of registrants illustrates the immense asymmetry of resources between the European Commission’s DMA unit and the companies it is overseeing. At the moment, the DMA unit counts only 80 dedicated employees. That pales in comparison with the gatekeepers who counted a combined of 106 employees, complemented by 282 lawyers and lobbyists. 

 Max Bank, LobbyControl campaigner, concludes:

"The EU Commission is up against tech giants with virtually unlimited lobbying budgets and legal teams. It’s a classic David-versus-Goliath scenario, and unless the EU strengthens its enforcement capabilities, the promise of the DMA to limit the power of Big Tech risks falling short. The chance for that is now with the negotiations for the EU budget starting today."

ENDS 

For media inquiries, please contact

Bram Vranken, Corporate Europe Observatory researcher and campaigner
bram@corporateeurope.org; +32 497 13 14 64

Margarida Silva, SOMO researcher
margarida@somo.nl; +32 487 82 35 41

Max Bank, LobbyControl researcher and campaigner
presse@lobbycontrol.de; +49 30 467 26 72 11

 Notes to editors

 •    LobbyControl earlier published an article (in German) on the Big Tech front group ACT | The App Association 

•    CEO and LobbyControl published an update on the tech industry’s lobby spending in 2023 

•    More information on Big Tech’s web of influence in the EU